Same name stacks

RapidWeaver Classic Stacks
1

RW6 (latest version) and Stacks 3

On the iMac for RW6 (El Capitan) in the Library folder I have transferred all add-ons, themes, stacks, etc from another iMac (Snow Leopard) RW5. My main website is on RW5 (on Snow Leopard). I have 3 new sites under construction for which I’m using RW6 and El Capitan iMac. I’d started the 3 new sites using RW5 but all 3 files are now converted to RW6 and on the El Capital iMac.

I have Stacks4Stacks ‘Filter’ - price GBP £10.
Last weekend, I bought Yabdab Software “Filter Stack” - price $19.95 (est GBP £13.70)
When tried to install the YS Filter stack, (usual click), it wouldn’t, Message says “Stack installation failed. Stack Filter couldn’t be installed”. I tried download again, also quit RW. Same problem.

I contacted YS support. As well as asking if I were using the required RW6 (which I’d already said I was!), they asked if I’d tried dragging the stack onto the RW6 icon. I tried that, nothing.

I’d asked YS support if it could be a conflict of name issue. They didn’t comment on that (although I expect they might now that I’ve contacted them again and this time copied in Stacks4Stacks (Will Woodgate).

Wondering whether it might be a name conflict issue, initially I deleted the Stacks4Stacks from the Library folder but that didn’t make any difference. Later on, whilst using RW6 I came across the uninstall stacks command so using that
I uninstalled the Stacks4Stacks ‘Filter’ - that might amount to the same thing, I don’t know. RW6’s uninstall sends the S4S stack to Trash so I moved it out of Trash into a new folder on Desktop pending. Then I tried to install the YS ‘Filter’ and it installed; problem solved.

My self-learned knowledge of what goes wrong with computers and software is learn as it happens, not in advance. It would seem that either the problem is a conflict of name issue or putting two stacks of the same name in the same Library.

I am awaiting response from both YS support and Stacks4Stacks on how I can use S4S Filter. In the meantime, as a matter of general policy if not principle I should have thought that developers and Realmac itself would be well-advised to ensure their choice of name for their stacks would not conflict with existing stack names.

Or at least (unless there is already) warn buyers that if there is a stack in the Library folder of the same name then not to buy because installation won’t work!

2

I’ve already responded to your email and given you a coupon code to obtain the latest version of my Filter stack. Hopefully you can get it reinstalled to continue using it. I’ll be announcing a free update for the Filter stack later this week, taking it up to the version 4 milestone and introducing a swath of new features.

All I can say is that my Filter stack was available first. It was originally released in early 2012. A simple Google search (on the developers part) would quickly reveal if identical or similarly named addons already exist. And I provide free demo versions of everything I sell, so developers have ample opportunity to test against potential conflicts well in advance of releasing something new.

3

Thank you, Will.

Before I updated to the latest version of your Filter stack, I’d got the 2012 version.

I wonder if YS bothered to check the name, their other stacks names all end in Snap. Strange that this one doesn’t. Maybe they just took a chance? Whatever, I daresay YS will comment once the time-zone difference clicks in!

4

This is not really the case. The name of the stack matters not. Two stacks of the same name can happily live in your stacks folder. What matters is that both have a unique filename, and a unique bundle id inside the stack (not publicly visible).
I fell into this trap myself some time ago, naming a stack simply “Toggle” and using just “Toggle” as the filename.
I now prepend every filename with “doo”, and our bundle id’s are reverse domain notation. That should ensure no conflicts with anything else out there.

5

I renamed the older Filter stack to “S4S-filter.stack” It was a suggestion from YabDab

6

I have both stacks without problem

Best